Welcome to WAIS!
This is the main distribution site for WAIS software. Some other releases
are maintained at other sites (see the announcement below).
Z39.50 archives are kept in the Z3950 subdirectory.
The archives to mailing lists are in /pub/wais/*@quake.think.com
-brewster and the wais crew
Brewster Kahle Thinking Machines Corporation
Brewster@Think.com 1010 El Camino Real
Project Leader Menlo Park, CA 94025
Wide Area Information Servers 415-329-9300x228
New Unix Internet Release (Beta 3 Release) Available
September 16, 1991
Thank you for the interest in WAIS. The servers on Quake (including the
directory of servers) has 70k requests from over 1100 different hosts all
over the world (18 countries) in a couple of months. There are now 70
servers including one in Norway, one in Australia, poetry, recipies,
comp.sources, as well as a Connection Machine serving all sorts of things.
There are are a few mailing lists on this subject that you might want to be
on:
wais-interest: only announcements like this (1 a month or so)
wais-discussion: moderated mailings every 1 or 2 weeks. Good
stuff including all on wais-interest.
wais-talk: unmoderated for implementors and interactive discussions.
Requests to wais--request@think.com. Archives available from
wais server: wais-discussion or anonymous ftp from quake.think.com.
A bibliography of available written materials and resources is available
from /pub/wais/wais-discussion/bibliography.txt@quake.think.com (ftp) or
WAIS server wais-discussion-archive.src, or on request from Barbara@think.com.
Jonathan Goldman pulled the most recent release together (with help from
developers all over the world, see below):
Highlights of modifications (see the release for the full report)
Overall: make it more portable, and small enhancements
Thank you to all that have contributed bug reports and suggestions. There
are no concrete plans for the next release.
Overview of components:
In this release is source code for:
* Server code: There is code to index text and picture files.
* Protocol code: based on Z39.50-1988 using the internet.
* Clients code: User interfaces for contacting servers
* GNU emacs interface
* simple shell interface
* Mac interface (in separate WAIStation file)
* tool kit for making your own interfaces
* X interface
* Directory of servers: This is be a network service that lists
existing servers and how to contact them.
* A Connection Machine server with some patent information, the CIA
factbook, and some Biomedical abstracts, info-mac, risks, etc
to serve as example servers.
Other components available elsewhere:
NeXT release: /wais/WAIStation-NeXT-1.0.tar.Z@think.com
Telnet access: telnet quake.think.com login wais
DOS: /pub/wais/UNC/wais-dos*@samba.oit.unc.edu
Motif: /public/wais/motif-a1.tar.Z@think.com
IBM RS6000: /pub/misc/wais-8-b2-dist.tar.Z@ans.net
SunView: /pub/wais/sunsearch.src.*.tar.Z@samba.oit.unc.edu
VMS: /pub/wais/vms*@samba.oit.unc.edu
The public servers that are currently advertized are:
Biology:
biology-journal-contents.src
biosci.src Molecular-biology.src
Usenet and internet archives:
comp.graphics.src comp.admin.src
comp.db.src comp.emacs.src
comp.multi.src comp.archives.src
rec.pets.src comp.sources.src
usenet-science.src
user-contrib-cookbook.src usenet-cookbook.src
homebrew.src
info-mac.src sun-spots.src
Frequently Asked Questions:
NeXT.FAQ.src unix.FAQ.src
ibm.pc.FAQ.src mac.FAQ.src
Connection Machine info:
CM-applications.src
CM-tech-summary.src
CM-fortran-manual.src CM-paris-manual.src
CM-star-lisp-docs.src CMFS-documentation.src
Books:
jargon.src
bible.src koran.src
sample-books.src
MIT-algorithms-bug.src MIT-algorithms-exercise.src
MIT-algorithms-suggest.src
Libraries:
online-libraries.src
tmc-library.src
Misc:
open_systems_calendar.src matrix_news.src
astro-images-gif.src astro-images-fits.src
nsf-bulletins.src
midi.src
unimelb-research.src (Australia!)
supreme-ct.src
NIH-Guide.src
UNTComputerDoc.src
US-Gov-Programs.src
UiO_Publications.src (Norway!)
cosmic-abstracts.src cosmic-programs.src
directory-of-servers.src
eff-documents.src eff-talk.src
empire.src empire20.src
internet-documents.src internet-drafts.src
internet-resource-guide.src internet-rfcs.src
patent-sampler.src
poetry.src
risks-digest.src
sample-pictures.src
unix-manual.src
wais-discussion-archives.src wais-docs.src
wall-street-journal-sample.src
weather.src
world-factbook.src
The first "Digital Librarians", I think it would be safe to say are the
maintainers of these servers:
Geir.Pedersen@use.uio.no
abc@banjo.concert.net
ang@theory.lcs.mit.edu
art@think.com
billy@unt.edu
biosci@genbank.bio.net
brewster@think.com
chris@cosmic1.cosmic.uga.edu
fullton@lambada.oit.unc.edu
ephraim@think.com
gordon@think.com
jcurran@nnsc.nsf.net
jonathan@think.com
jsq@tic.com
root@next2.oit.unc.edu
rvc@ariel.its.unimelb.EDU.AU
uriw@microworld.media.mit.edu
wais@eff.org
wais@talon.UCS.ORST.EDU
waisp@quake.think.com
weather-server@quake.think.com
The release is available from Think.com via anonymous FTP in
/public/wais/wais-8-b3.tar.Z and WAIStation-0-62.sit.hqx.
Bugs to bug-wais@think.com or to me.
For the bug fixes, thanks to:
Garrett A. Wollman
Simon E Spero
kent@parc.xerox.com,
Michael Haberler (mah@parrot.prv.univie.ac.at) and to
gcardwel@uci.edu for bug fixes to the last release.
-brewster and the wais crew
"Paper and flesh are fleeting media for the treasures that are ideas."
Brewster Kahle Thinking Machines Corporation
Brewster@Think.com 1010 El Camino Real
Project Leader Menlo Park, CA 94025
Wide Area Information Servers 415-329-9300x228